Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, & The Adventures of Tintin)

2011 was the year Michael Fassbender went from being the next Joseph Fiennes to the next Ralph Fiennes. In three very distinct roles – as the vengeful, young Magneto in X-Men: First Class, a sex addict spiraling out of control in Shame, and as the all-too-human Dr. Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method – Fassbender skillfully and with intense stillness depicted characters who were not especially likable or good, but he made them human, sympathetic and captivating. You were always waiting to see what he would do next, and Fassbender didn’t let us down. Whether it was hunting down Nazis, seducing a woman on the subway with nothing more than a stare, or unlocking the secrets of a troubled woman’s mind even as he succumbed to his own inner demons, Michael Fassbender gave us a lot to behold at the movies this year, including his (not so) Little Magneto.